Indian Boy Awarded $5,000, Inducted In Facebook Hall Of Fame For Spotting Critical WhatsApp Privacy Bug

A Manipuri youth has been honoured by social media giants Facebook and has also been awarded 5,000 dollars after he discovered a WhatsApp bug which was violating piracy of users, The Hindu reports.

The 22-year-old civil engineer, Zonel Sougaijam said his name was included on the ‘Facebook Hall of Fame 2019’ list for detecting the bug. His name can be found on the 16th position on a list comprising of 94 people.

Zonel had discovered and reported the bug in March to Facebook’s Bug Bounty Program, which deals with matters violating the privacy of users.

“During a voice call through WhatsApp, the bug used to allow the caller to upgrade it to a video call without the authorisation and knowledge of the receiver. The caller was then able to see what the other person was doing, violating the privacy of the receiver,” PTI quotes Sougaijam.

The Facebook Security team acknowledged his report the next day, and its technical department fixed the bug in the next 20 days, he said while quoting an e-mail from Facebook, which said: “After reviewing this issue, we have decided to award you a bounty of $5000.”